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Synoposis

Dan Lederman, aka ShatMan, calls himself the One-Man Bill Shatner Tribute Band. ShatMan got his start at karaoke shows, performing to discs of music that Shatner has covered (“Lucy in the Sky…,” “Rocket Man,” etc.). Says ShatMan, “I look a little like John Belushi doing Shatner.”

ShatMan still cruises local karaoke nights. “When I announce that I’ll be doing my song ‘in the style of the great William Shatner,’ a lot of people in the audience groan or even start booing…But I have a theory that almost every person in the world can find something to love about [Shatner’s] way of reciting songs, whether as beat poetry, as a sci-fi or Star Trek fan, for its rhythmic cadence, or simply because it’s so kitschy and campy.”

Lederman says he looked into talent agencies specializing in celebrity impersonators, but “most of them aren’t looking for strictly musical acts…I got asked if I do Denny Crane [Shatner’s former Boston Legal role], but I need my CDs. There has to be music behind me. I can only impersonate him when I’m singing.”